Terence Young

Began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1930s and, following WWII service, made his fiction directorial debut with "One Night With You" (1948). Young directed a number of routine British action...
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Patrick Duffy's murdered parents had a cameo in the reboot of his TV hit Dallas after the actor dug out a box of family photos dating back to the 1920s to complete a crucial prop. Crewmember Andrea Cantrell was tasked with creating a Ewing family photo album when the sex-and-scandal drama returned to screens after a 21-year absence in 2012.
She struggled to find appropriate pictures as many of the new cast members could only provide recent snaps, and her efforts were further hampered because the image of two original Dallas stars - late actors Jim Davis and Barbara Bel Geddes - are controlled by the handlers of their estate.
However, just when Cantrell thought her task was hopeless, veteran star Duffy provided a cache of old family photos, and his own parents looked so convincing as Ewings that the images were placed in the photobook and appeared onscreen in the show.
In a blog post for UltimateDallas.com, Cantrell writes, "This photo album was a very tough prop to fabricate because the images that I had of our current cast members were too recent and few to fill up several pages.
"I really wanted to bring back the nostalgia of the original series by using old photos but unfortunately I was unable to use Barbara Bel Geddes or Jim Davis' photos because their estate owns the rights to their images... I was running out of time...
"Then Patrick Duffy became my hero. He asked his wife to send a box of pictures. The pictures I received from Patrick were perfect! They were black and white photos from the 1920s through the 1980s of Patrick's parents and him as a baby through teenager to young man. Patrick's mother had a resemblance to (Ewing matriarch) Miss Ellie which made a photo of her holding baby Patrick exactly what we needed. So I started the process of getting clearance, I asked Patrick if he could get permission for the use. He told me that his parents were no longer alive and he would sign consent for use. I was elated!"
Duffy's parents Terence and Marie were shot dead during a robbery at the bar they owned in Montana in 1986, and Cantrell insists she became emotional when she heard the tragic tale, adding, "I had at least 150 original photos on my desk of Marie and Terrence (sic). I had all of Patrick's memories in my hands and I was brought to tears by this act of generosity and trust. This turned out to be the most important prop of my career."

Paramount
It's a good hour into The Wolf of Wall Street, following a deep dive into Jordan Belfort's early days in the stock market game — that being the most appropriate word for it — and festive indulgence in the most carnal manifestations of human desire, that we're hit with the title card, "18 months later..." Here, it is solidified that the years we have spent inside Martin Scorsese's world of toxic capitalism have all been, up to this point, set-up. Fuel. This brief flash of text, the longest instance of silence in the cacophonous sewer system that is Belfort's story, is the first real sign that a fire is coming.
By this time, Scorsese's willful defiance of the "show, don't tell" method has introduced us to every one of the doe-eyed crook's countless vices. He has no qualms stealing from those who can't afford it, lying to those who trust him, cheating on his wife, cramming every substance known to modern science into his bloodstream, and wholeheartedly endorsing (to his adoring audience) all of the above. All the while, we bound between delight and disgust. The delight comes not so much in the material victories of Belfort and his cronies — that has the latter effect, in fact, as every antic is so vividly laced with Sodom-level depravity — but in watching them like zoo animals. In fact, The Wolf of Wall Street's principal undoing might be that it is simply too much fun.
For that, we have to thank Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio had managed terrific performances all his career, but this is one of the first in years to actually surprise us. Opening his tale as an ambitious and firm-shouldered young buck, the likes of which you'd find in any Horatio Algers novel, and devolving into the Financial District's answer to Beetlejuice, the actor exhibits corners of his performing ability that we have always dreamed we'd see. In the months leading up to DiCaprio's turn as the dastardly dandy Calvin Candie in last year's Quentin Tarantino picture Django Unchained, fans anticipated an unprecedented kookiness that never seemed to show. Turns out, DiCaprio was saving that mania for Wolf of Wall Street, in which he lambasts justice and judgment in the form of an elastic child at his most tempered and a rabid kangaroo on those nights of the especially hard partying.
Paramount
And of course, there's that scene with the Quaaludes. Without giving too much away — although the experience is so visceral that all the contextual spoilers wouldn't rob the scene of its emphatic humor — DiCaprio manages a feat of physical comedy so extensive, demanding, and gutterally f**king hilarious that you'll wonder tearfully what might have been had the rising star shirked Titanic for a career in slapstick. But the surplus joys derived from this scene might, in fact, be Wolf's undoing. In a story that is meant to lather on the horrors inherent in the human's propensity for self-serving greed and gluttony, it can soften the blow when we're allowed to take a break from our disgust to spend a few moments in vivid, unabashed delight. Yes, the scene in question involves drug abuse, intoxicated driving, criminal activity, and a near-death experience. But it's so damn funny that we're kept from toppling down into what might have been the darkest crevasse of the film's story and enduring the pathos that might come with it.
The dilution of Wolf's message comes at the hand of its comedy (with no affair a bigger culprit than the one described above) and its tendency to meander. Although Scorsese works to shove the very idea of "excess" down our throats with seemingly endless scenes of Belfort and his pals harassing flight attendants and dehumanizing little people, the ad nauseum effect doesn't always hit home as powerfully as imagined, instead allowing the viewer to fizzle out from time to time through Wolf's three-hour tour. We're drowned, slowly and steadily, in Belfort's tragic pleasures while, as the "18 months later" interstitial suggests, we keep expecting to combust with them.
It's always a risky endeavor for a film or television show to indict crooked characters not through narrative penalties but through a tacit communication of their behavior or psychology as bad news. The risk comes in the form of audiences challenging artists for letting their villains get off scot-free, or even for glorifying undesirable lifestyles. Ultimately, while Belfort does get some semblance of his comeuppance, he wins in his nefarious game. The Belfort we leave at the end of our journey adheres to the tenets he spouts from the beginning, reveling in a legion of former colleagues beaming at him in collective awe and new students of his self-centric theology zealously eating up his every word in hopes of becoming the very same kind of demigod. To Scorsese, and to any an audience member willing to estrange him or herself from the bounties of wicked humor, this is just the fire we were promised. Belfort's image is ignited by the instances of theft, deceit, betrayal, substance abuse, sexual crime, and a spiralling descent into sub-human madness. But there are a few too many laughs along the way to keep the flames from reaching their full, hottest potential.
But hey, when you're complaining about a movie for being too much fun, you've got a pretty good movie on your hands.
3.5/5
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Disney
You expect a bit of schmaltz from a movie about the making of Mary Poppins. But schmaltz doesn't entail a sentiment lathered so thickly that it's feels like an anti-depressant commercial, or material so broad that it's insulting to believe that audiences above the age of five can relate to the emotionality onscreen. Saving Mr. Banks takes for granted that its viewers are fans of traditional Disney, seeming to confuse Disney fans for Disney characters, and insinuating that we bear the intellectual sophistication thereof.
The real victim, of course, is the character of P.L. Travers (Emma Roberts, charming as she can be with this material), who incurs a fraction of a storyline about overcoming (or learning to live with?) her latent childhood traumas. As a young girl in Australia (as we learn in intermittent flashbacks — by and large the dullest part of the movie, but such a hefty piece of it), young Travers adored her merry, whimsical alcoholic father (Colin Farrell, playing a character that feels as grounded in reality as Dick Van Dyke's penguin-trotting screever Bert), enchanting in his Neverland mannerisms while her chronically depressed mother watched the family crumble into squalor.
Forty-odd years later, the themes of Travers' childhood inform (sometimes directly, right down to presciently repeated phrases) her resistence to allow her novel Mary Poppins to take form as a Disney movie. In the absence of a reason for why she might have a sudden change of heart about a feeling to which she has apparently held so strongly for two decades, Travers opts to fly out to California to meet Walt Disney (Tom Hanks, wading through the script without any of the energy we know he has in his back pocket) and discuss the adaptation process.
Disney
When it's not insisting upon clunky "melting the ice queen" devices — like nuzzling Travers up to an oversized stuffed Mickey Mouse to show that, hey, she's starting to like this place! — the stubborn author's time in the Disney writer's room is the best part of the movie. Working with (or against) an increasingly agitated creative team made up of Bradley Whitford, Jason Schwartzman, and B.J. Novak, Travers protests minor details about setting and character, driving her colleagues mad in the process. It is to the credit of the comic talents of Whitford and Schwartzman (who play reserved agitation well beside Novak's outright hostility — he's doing mid-series Ryan in this movie, FYI) that these scenes offer a scoop of charm. But Travers' gradual defrosting poses a consistent problem, as it is experienced over the slow reveal of her disjointed backstories in a fashion that suggests the two are connected... but we have no reason to believe that they are.
The implications of the characters' stories — depression, child abuse, alcoholism, handicaps, and PTSD — are big, and worthy of monumental material. But the characters are so thin that the assignment of such issues to them does a disservice to the emotionality and pain inherent therein. A good story might have been found in the making of Mary Poppins, and in the life and work of P.L. Travers. Unfortunately, Saving Mr. Banks is too compelled to turn that arc into a Disney cartoon. And much like Travers herself, we simply cannot abide that.
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It sounded so brilliant, but so crazy, that when it was announced April 1 it seemed like an April Fool’s joke. Dark Horse Comics will release a limited run comic adaptation of George Lucas’ initial rough draft for Star Wars written in May 1974—three years before Star Wars’ eventual release. Three years in which Lucas could change his mind and tweak his vision, and did. A lot. Reading over the summary of the Star Wars Rough Draft, it seems like an entirely different film. It’s even that much more obviously inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s great 1958 samurai actioner, The Hidden Fortress, about an aging general helping to escort a young princess through hostile terrain. In his original vision for Star Wars, Lucas called his guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy “Jedi Bendu” rather than simply Jedi. And lightsabers were still called “lazer swords.”
LucasBooks executive editor J.W. Rinzler is writing the Dark Horse adaptation of the rough draft, called The Star Wars, after Lucas’ first title. (No, it’s not because of some Frank Miller-style affectation a la “The Batman.”) “I’m having a blast adapting George Lucas’ prototypical ideas into sequential storytelling,” Rinzler tells Hollywood.com exclusively. “It’s a dream task to help bring to life Annikin Starkiller, General Luke Skywalker, the first Sith Knights, a Space Fortress (that’s attacked twice), Imperial troopers on dune birds, the very first Princess Leia (from the planet Aquilae)… And there’s so much more in The Star Wars.”
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Just from that description alone, you can probably tell this is unlike any Star Wars you’ve ever seen before. Both Luke and Annikin (canonical spelling “Anakin” was years off) exist in the same story, and they’re not father and son? Princess Leia is from Aquilae, not Alderaan? There’s a Space Fortress instead of a Death Star? To help bring Lucas’ earliest vision of that Galaxy Far Far Away to ink-and-paint life, Dark Horse has commissioned artist Mike Mayhew (The Avengers). “Nearly every day I get to see Mike Mayhew’s energetic panels arrive in my in-box,” Rinzler says. “He’s simply doing an amazing job, building on the earliest designs of Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, and even Colin Cantwell, while adding his own glorious touches. Each moment flows into the next. I feel like a kid again.”
So let’s take you back to a time when Jedi Bendu wore samurai-style topknots, Darth Vader was practically a bit player, and Han Solo was a green lizard. This is the story Lucas originally had in mind when he pitched Hollywood his idea for a space opera almost 40 years ago and 20th Century Fox took the bait. It’s been summarized all over every Star Wars fansite, but if you don’t want it spoiled, turn away now. We’ll walk you through The Star Wars by telling you how it’s the same and how it’s different from the Star Wars you know and love. What’s particularly striking is how it sets up elements in A New Hope and The Phantom Menace in almost equal measure. Everything you love about Star Wars is here. But also there are story points from the get-go that some more cranky fans would pick apart in The Phantom Menace many years later.
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A Long Time Ago…: Lucas did indeed write an opening crawl into his earliest draft. The Jedi Bendu were guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy for 100,000 years in The Star Wars, as opposed to the canonical 36,000 we’ve come to know. And they didn’t serve the Galactic Republic. No, they actually were the personal bodygards of a benevolent Emperor. They led his space forces across the galaxy to bring order from chaos, much the way the Jedi lead the Republic’s military during the Clone Wars. The Jedi and their Emperor were defeated by the “Knights of Sith.” The Sith replaced their rule with a New Empire.
It’s Still a Father-Son Story: Like Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope, The Star Wars is about the coming of age of a young man. But that young man isn’t Luke Skywalker. It’s Annikin Starkiller (the name was an homage to Swiss Family Robinson director Ken Annakin), who, with his father Kane Starkiller, a former Jedi Bendu, must leave their home planet of Utapau in the Kissel system for Aquilae, a planet still independent from the rule of the Empire.
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It’s incredible to think that the word "Utapau" would make it into Lucas’ draft in 1974, but not actually appear onscreen until Revenge of the Sith 31 years later. (For those of you with short memories, Utapau is the sinkhole planet where Obi-Wan duels General Grievous.) And "Kissell" seems to be an early version of Kessell, home of the galaxy’s most notorious spice mines.
Luke Skywalker Isn’t Who You Think He Is: In this version Luke fulfills the Obi-Wan role. He’s an aging sage, but still a cunning warrior, who must guide Annikin Starkiller to maturity. Kane cannot train Annikin himself because he’s lost most of his body in battles with the Sith. Only his head and an arm aren’t cybernetic, and he runs off an external power source, like the robot he basically is. So the idea of the young hero’s father being a cyborg, like Darth Vader to Luke, was already in place from the earliest version of the story.
Princess Leia Is Still Pretty Much The Same: Though you could see her as a hybrid of Carrie Fisher’s Leia and Natalie Portman’s Queen Amidala. Like Amidala, she’s part of the benevolent royalty of a backwater world—Aquilae—that’s remained free of policing from the galaxy’s central government. Aquilae would eventually become Naboo in The Phantom Menace, and that planet is a part of the Republic, but like Naboo, Aquilae faces an invasion force. Not from the Trade Federation, but from the Empire itself.
Fear Will Keep the Systems in Line. Fear of this Space Fortress: The Empire wants to invade Aquilae because its scientists are among the most skilled in the galaxy at cloning. (That idea would be transferred to Kamino for Attack of the Clones.) An Aquilaerian spy on the Imperial capital, Alderaan—Coruscant wouldn’t be invented by Timothy Zahn until some 17 years later—informs Aquilae’s king of the Empire’s hostile intent. That spy’s name is Clieg Whitsun. Clieg would become Cliegg, the name of Owen Lars’ father in Attack of the Clones. And Whitsun would be come Whitesun, as in Beru Whitesun, Owen’s wife, Luke’s aunt. Alderaan would be far from the Empire’s capital in A New Hope but rather a hotbed of rebellion against its rule and the target of the Death Star’s superlaser.
Rather than a Death Star in The Star Wars, there was a Space Fortress, a massive mobile battle station. Shortly after it entered the Aquilae system, the King fired on it, causing the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, who had been stationed on the Space Fortress to enter escape pods and land in the Jundland Wastes, a forbidding part of Aquilae. The Jundland Wastes would later be transplanted to Tatooine, where the droids did also make a crashlanding at the beginning of A New Hope.
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“My Name Is Annikin Starkiller, and I’m Here to Rescue You!”: Aquilae’s king quickly dies, meaning that the Empire wants to target his next of kin, Princess Leia. Not to kill her, but to capture her and use her as a puppet to legitimize their rule, much like the Trade Federation hopes to do with Queen Amidala in The Phantom Menace. Annikin, now the padawaan apprentice of Luke Skywalker, accompanies his master to protect Leia from the Imperial forces. They hope to hide from their enemy with Leia in the Jundland Wastes, and that’s when they first meet up with R2-D2 and C-3PO, who join their party. What’s weird about this particular set-up is that Leia actually has a couple younger brothers with her in tow, one of whom is named Biggs, which will later be the name of Luke’s old friend back on Tatooine in A New Hope.
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Han Solo, Lizardman: Annikin and Luke lead Leia and her brothers through the Jundland Wastes so that they can reach the spaceport of Gordon, a vile place of scum and villainy, where they can charter a ship and get offworld. It’s there they meet Han Solo, a Urellian, a six-foot tall bipedal reptilian known to hunt down and enslave Wookiees on their home planet of Yavin. That means the Urellians are kind of like the early version of the Trandoshans, reptilians native to the same star system as Kashyyyk in canonical Star Wars, who fight and enslave the Wookiees. Han is a friend of Kane Starkiller, who already met up with him to prepare for passage for Annikin, Luke, Leia, and the boys offworld.
With Solo’s help, they charter a freighter offworld captained by a man named Valorum (a name that would surface again with Terence Stamp’s Supreme Chancellor Valorum in The Phantom Menace). In order to avoid the Imperial patrols, however, the boys will need to be put in microcases, kind of like a combination of the Millennium Falcon’s secret compartments and carbon freezing, that will mask their life signs. They don’t have enough power to fuel these microcases, however, so Kane takes off his power pack, offers it to his son and his friends, and sacrifices his life. Kind of like what happens when Tony Stark lets go of that blue shiny orb in his chest.
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Even in 1974, It’s a Trap!: So Valorum, the captain of that freighter they chartered, is actually a Sith Knight. And he planned to capture them and turn them over to his higher-ups, who’d surely force Princess Leia to sign a treaty legitimizing the Empire’s occupation of the planet. Instead, our heroes steal an Imperial starship and get offworld, but have a harrowing chase through an asteroid field (hello, The Empire Strikes Back!), which damages their ship and forces them to land on the Wookiee homeworld of Yavin. There they find the Urellians fighting the Wookiees, but they all align with the Wookiees, even Urellian Han Solo. They also meet up with a very special walking carpet named Chewbacca, who saves Annikin’s life in the midst of a battle. They all gather at the home of anthropologists Owen and Beru Lars (yep, they’re not moisture farmers in this version, nor are they related to any of our main characters), while Leia is captured by the Imperials and sent back to Aquilae to sign the treaty. Actually, she’s imprisoned on the Space Fortress.
Vader, Where Are You?: Everyone rushes back to Aquilae to save the princess. She’s being held captive aboard the Space Fortress, so Annikin goes undercover in stormtrooper armor to get to her cell. But he’s caught before he can make the rescue, and Darth Vader, here just a menacing, barely-glimpsed enforcer, orders Valorum to kill him. Despite being a Sith, Valorum has a change of heart, and lets Annikin go free. Now he can rescue the princess. And not a moment too soon. Aged warrior Luke Skywalker leads a squadron of starfighters (all piloted by Wookiees!) to destroy the fortress. They escape just as the space fortress is about to blow up, already a classic Star Wars close-call.
The Empire is beaten back from Aquilae, the princess is safe, and Annikin has undergone his first great trial as a Jedi Bendu under Skywalker’s tutelage. Princess Leia is crowned Queen, and she gives rewards our heroes in honor of their valor. In fact, she even appoints Annikin “Lord Protector of Aquilae.” The end.
So, yeah. This is that moment we close our slackjaws and say, preferably in the voice of Troy McClure, “Haha! It didn’t change a bit, did it?”
It’s obviously very different from the movie we ultimately got, a hell of a lot more complicated, and probably less resonant. But like its big screen spawn, The Star Wars does have some incredible imagery woven into the DNA of its narrative from the start. No wonder Rinzler called it “hallucinatory” in Dark Horse’s first press release about the comic adaptation. But there are more than a few elements present in this prototype of the story that we actually do see pop up in the finished version—in fact, across multiple films. It’s like a bizarro world in which we recognize some of what we see, but what’s familiar really only serves to highlight just how different everything is.
Mike Mayhew’s images in the few panels that have already been released have glimmers of familiarity to them. You see a young boy, possibly Biggs, dressed much like Anakin in sandy-colored robes in Phantom Menace, while Luke adopts a very traditional, cross-legged samurai pose. And the circular cockpit on that freighter looks very much like the iconic Corellian style of the Millennium Falcon’s. The Star Wars should prove to be a worthy companion piece to the Visionaries line of Dark Horse Star Wars comics, which reimagined plot points from the original trilogy to make you rethink everything you thought you knew about that Galaxy Far Far Away. Only this shows what that galaxy’s maker originally had in mind when brainstorming this material. Just writing that story summary filled me with a sense of exoticism and surprise. To reimagine A New Hope is to reimagine everything you thought you knew about Star Wars. Suddenly it’s as alien as it was the first time the world saw it in 1977. But that’s been the unique genius of Star Wars—to present the new, the unexpected, the alien, and all the feelings of discovery that accompany them, and also bottle timeless universe truths about fellowship and honor that transcend mere “plot points.” Rinzler and Mayhew’s project could be an alternate universe Star Wars project that reminds us all over again why we fell in love with George Lucas’ saga in the first place.
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
[Photo Credit: Dark Horse]
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Year's end is close upon us and the Hollywood.com staff is finally ready to weigh in on the best of the best of big screen. We sat through movie after movie, January through December, to give you a definitive list of 2012's stand out films. Who made the cut? Read on for our writers' picks for the best movies of the year:
The Best
21 Jump Street (Picked By Kate Ward)
The reboot of the 1980s series starring Johnny Depp had everything going against it: It was released during the industry's March dead zone, which also happened to coincide with disinterested audiences' increasing desire to give all Hollywood reboots the boot. But 21 Jump Street jumped past all these hurdles, becoming not only one of Hollywood's few entertaining reboots, but one that showcased the surprising comedic talents of 2012's A-list breakout Channing Tatum. And in a year full of blockbuster tentpoles (The Hunger Games, Breaking Dawn — Part 2, and The Dark Knight Rises) and Oscar bait (Argo, Les Misérables, and Django Unchained), how could you not lend some support to 2012's true underdog?
Amour (Picked By Matt Patches)
In the last 20 years, Michael Haneke has explored every facet of human evil, no act of violence or shame too perverse for his cinematic journeys. Amour is new territory for the auteur, certainly his sweetest film to date, yet continuing his trend of forcing us to confront our deepest fears as emotional beings. With two powerful performances by French actors Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant, Haneke's film follows an elderly couple who grapple with staying sane in the final moments of their lives. Anne (Riva) is bed-stricken and barely aware of her surroundings. Georges (Trintignant) dedicates his every minute to taking care of her. The audiences watches, inspired, shocked, and warmed by the simple, raw drama of it all.
Anna Karenina (Picked By Abbey Stone)
Jon Wright's luscious, highly stylized adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's classic story of love and despair divided critics, but I was captivated by it. A departure from Wright's sweeping retellings of such literary masterpieces as Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, Anna Karenina is claustrophobic, physically and figuratively. By trapping his characters in the ever-moving sets of an imperial theater (used to its best advantage in a heart-stopping horse race scene), Wright illustrates the rigid, suffocating bounds of Russian society life. Tom Stoppard's screenplay, meanwhile, takes Tolstoy's tome and strips it down to simple language that conveys the most elemental of human desires. The gorgeous costumes, actors, and landscape (a literal breath of fresh air when you venture outside the stifling theater) all compliment one another to create the film's mesmerizing dreamscape.
Argo (Picked By Kelsea Stahler)
It may be a mind-bending thought to suppose that a Ben Affleck film may be in the running for an Oscar, but Argo is unavoidable in the conversation about who’ll take the awards stage in February of next year. But the reason it stands out as a favorite in 2012 isn’t owed to any fancy behind-the-scenes footwork. This film hearkens back to an older time in both setting and style; it’s got a few frill and all the suspense and soul audiences require of a great movie. Heck, it’s even got a few moments of tense humor, which is practically requisite of a film that involves the production of a fake Star Wars rip-off as a resolution to a harrowing hostage situation. Argo is by no means the most perfectly-crafted film of 2012, but it rises to the top tier as one of the more solidly enjoyable and diverting films of the year. And since it’s based on a true story, you might even learn a thing or two.
The Avengers (Picked By Sydney Bucksbaum)
The Avengers rounded up all the Marvel movie superheroes in what could have been a film reminiscent of Michael Bay: gratuitous action and destruction of major cities, with little to no plot. Thankfully, with Joss Whedon at the helm, we were gifted with a snarky, funny, cinematically stunning, emotionally deep look at what motivates the men and woman behind the masks. Plus, watching the Hulk throw Loki around like a wet towel was insanely gratifying. This movie got us extremely excited for the next phase of the Marvel superhero movies, beginning with Iron Man 3, which will commence immediately after the events of The Avengers. We’ll finally get a chance to see what happens after all the death and destruction of superhero fights.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Picked By Aly Semigran)
Benh Zeitlin's stunning debut about a brave, fierce little girl named Hushpuppy (miniature force of nature Quvenzhané Wallis) living in a post-storm bayou with her detiriorating, alcoholic father Wink (fellow impressive newcomer Dwight Henry) is an exhilarating, overwhelming experience. (To call it a tearjerker might imply you've had any tears left afterwards.) While the film may, in part, be about the awesome power of nature, it's really about love and the incredibly strength we can find in ourselves in the most challenging situations. In addition to the brilliant performances and masterful direction, Beasts also had the best musical score of any film this year.
Cabin in the Woods (Picked By Shaunna Murphy)
After an eons-long release delay, Cabin in the Woods finally made its way to theaters this spring — and for this, I thank the vicious, vengeful Gods. I would gladly sacrifice a gaggle of idiots for this perfect blend of (dare I say it?) meta, self-aware horror-comedy. The dialogue and wink-wink horror tropes were endlessly entertaining, while still being pretty scary — and not just while you're stoned, though Fran Kranz' Marty makes a pretty good case for legalization. Also, it's Bradley Whitford's best work in years. Also also, Richard Jenkins.
Cloud Atlas (Picked By Matt Patches)
Cloud Atlas was an ambitious movie the directors of The Matrix spent years trying to convince investors could work, but the result was worth the wait. A sprawling, interconnected story chronicling life's biggest challenges and the human spirit that overcomes them, Cloud Atlas is a big screen experiment that makes full use of its canvas. Spanning the 19th Century to the post-apocalyptic future, the Wachowskis, working with co-director Tom Tykwer, used special effects and A-List actors to tackle grand themes with a three-hour movie that stands as one of 2012's only true epics.
The Comedy (Picked By Matt Patches)
Tim Heidecker has made a career out of pushing the boundaries of "acceptable" comedy, but little did we realize he was only scratching the surface of the artform's subversive nature. In The Comedy, the actor loses himself in Swanson, a terrorist of the deadpan variety. Heidecker takes privileged young people to task in a tour-de-force performance that's hilarious, terrifying, and completely mesmerizing. Director Rick Alverson strips down the New York City landscape to its ugliest, laying on a rumbling soundscape to ensure our descent into Hell isn't too comfortable. The Comedy isn't easy to swallow, but for anyone looking for a challenge, it's a satisfying meal.
The Deep Blue Sea (Picked By Christian Blauvelt)
A tear-stained reverie of faded love and heartbreak, director Terence Davies’ first narrative film since 2000’s equally devastating The House of Mirth is the year’s most thoughtful, introspective character study. Rachel Weisz, in a career-best performance, plays a woman in 1950s London caught between her uncontrollable, adulterous passion for a former RAF pilot (Tom Hiddleston) and her awareness that he’s a total cad, unworthy of her (or any woman’s) love. So she thinks that suicide is the only way to reconcile head and heart. Set during the course of one day—the day on which Weisz’ character has decided to end her life—Davies’ delicate camera expands the parameters of the Terrence Rattigan play on which it’s based through a mosaic of flashbacks that chart the progression of her affair, including the most haunting depiction of The Blitz you’ll ever see.
The Hunger Games (Picked By Leanne Aguilera)
"May the odds be ever in your favor.” This past March, audiences were led through a whirlwind of raw emotions and heart-pounding adventures as 24 tributes schemed, fought, and killed in the brutal quest to be the winner of the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The first installment of Suzanne Collins' best-selling trilogy The Hunger Games was triumphantly transferred to the big screen, overall becoming the highest grossing female-led action film of all time. And for many book fans, hearing Jennifer Lawrence desperately call out, “I volunteer as tribute!” brought chills of excitement and satisfaction to know that they have cast the perfect Katniss Everdeen to eventually rise up against the Capitol as the Mockingjay that we all know, fear and love."
Lincoln (Picked By Kelsea Stahler)
This historical drama couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. Just as our country teeters on a precipice, demanding compromise and change, Lincoln sweeps into to tell the story of one of the nation’s most honorable politicians as he affected one of those most important and necessary changes in our history through less-than honorable means. Daniel Day-Lewis is could not be more perfect to capture the intimate portrait of the 16th American president, a man many of us presume to know from school-day history lessons. The film glosses over a few historical points of Lincoln’s move to pass the 13th Amendment before the end of the Civil War, eschewing them for the more dramatic moments, but in a landscape of Captain Americas and Iron Men, it’s a comfort to enjoy a film about an American hero whose strength was of conviction instead of brawn.
Magic Mike (Picked By Aly Semigran)
Don't call it the Channing Tatum stripper movie. Steven Soderbergh's sleek, smart, and — yes, sexy — slice of Americana is so much more than that. Part buddy comedy, part cautionary drama, the well-written and well-acted (Channing, who knew?) Magic Mike was a genuine risk taker that paid off big as the thinking woman's fantasy antidote to Fifty Shades of Grey. Plus, Matthew McConaughey's supporting turn as an sociopathic strip club owner is worth losing your shirt over.
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (Picked By Lindsey DiMatinna)
This movie was so much fun. I love all the crazy plot lines, especially watching Alex fall in love. But, the circus performance at the end was totally brilliant, especially in 3D. The 3D effects made all the action in this movie come alive right in front of me and made me feel like I was a part of the cartoon story. Yes, I am still a kid at heart.
Moonrise Kingdom (Picked By Alicia Lutes)
It's almost too easy for people to find reasons to dislike or poo-poo the work of Wes Anderson. It's "too precious" or "too indie," detractors cry in a flurried, expected manner. But with his 2012 release, Moonrise Kingdom, we saw Anderson's deft hand take a well-guided stab at childhood, romance, and the heart one develops from living in those moments. It's whimsical in the way all childhood memories are, but grounded in a wonderful story outside of its beautiful scenery and charms. Richly-developed characters, a need to escape, and the raw emotion of living—this is what makes 'Moonrise Kingdom' a highlight of 2012. Performance highlights include Bill Murray (duh), Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, and our young heroes Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward.
Oslo, August 31 (Picked By Christian Blauvelt)
Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s second film, ‘Oslo, August 31,’ lets the world unfold during the course of a single day through the eyes of a character contemplating suicide. In this case, it’s Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), a 34-year-old guy with intellectual pretensions who’s let out of a drug-rehab clinic for one day to attend a job interview with a magazine. As the title suggests, the movie is also something of a city symphony for Norway’s capital, which Trier (yes, he’s distantly related to Lars) calls “the suburb of Europe.” ‘Oslo’ is purely a cerebral affair, with a character who rationalizes his irrational choices in a way that’s stunningly logical…and all the more unsettling for it.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Picked By Michael Arbeiter)
It’s no easy feat to turn a universally life-changing coming-of-age novel into an equally powerful feature film. Granted, it doesn’t hurt to have the novel’s author at the helm of the movie — such is the case The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which author Stephen Chbosky adapted from the very book that turned high school around for so many sad and lonely teenagers into a piece of cinema with just as dynamic an emotional force. The film’s starring players — a Logan Lerman stuck in his own head, an Emma Watson drenched in self-contempt, and (best of all) a hilarious and heartbreaking Ezra Miller as a young man charged with defending his sexual orientation against the world around him — breathe a life so vivid into Chbosky’s magical words, serving the story with just as much affect as the incarnates of yourself and your friends that you imagined to be fostering these roles upon first reading the book. From the softer, sweeter moments, to the dark and hard-to-watch turns, Perks is wholly real, reminding even those of us who read about and related to Charlie so many years ago just what it’s like to be him. And to feel, if only for a second, infinite.
Silver Linings Playbook (Picked By Anna Brand)
When you put Bradley Cooper in a movie without a strange baby and booze and smack a mental illness on him, doubts will soar. The same way Jennifer Lawrence without a bow and arrow undoubtedly creates skeptics. But leave it to these off-beat stars (with a 15-year age difference!) to bring seamless honesty and perfect chemistry. The blue collar setting – much like the director's The Fighter – is captured in such a relatable way it's almost desirable. Even though we get an ending as unrealistic as the time Matthew Mcconaughey chased down a taxi on a bridge and got to Kate Hudson just in time in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, it didn't take away from the thought-provoking story and spot-on acting. Not even a little bit. In fact, it was what we wanted all along.
Sleepwalk with Me (Picked By Michael Arbeiter)
Sleepwalk with Me is not at all just a celebration of standup comedian Mike Birbiglia, nor of standup comedy in general. It is a celebration of storytelling. Birbiglia channels his own ascension of the industry in this semi-fictional account of the comic’s early career, romantic relationships, and struggles with a chaotic sleep disorder. In the sentiment of the age-old “write what you know” adage, Birbiglia’s film expresses the philosophy that the greatest stories — be they funny or serious in nature — are those infused with the most honesty and intimacy. When Birbiglia’s author surrogate Matt Pandamiglia embraces his flaws and shortcomings, he learns just how much merit lies within the stories he has at his disposal. And beyond just influencing his career as a standup does this lesson influence his life — in the most laugh-out-loud and sincere fashion imaginable.
Zero Dark Thirty (Picked By Matt Patches)
Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal continue to mine high drama from real life circumstances, following The Hurt Locker with a how-can-this-possibly-be-true true story behind the investigation that led to the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Like a modern All the President's Men, Zero Dark Thirty finds emotion in the facts, keeping us on the edge of our seats as Jessica Chastain's Maya loses herself (and her friends) to the hunt. We know how the story ends, but impressively, getting there never seems predictable.
The 5 Worst:
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Picked By Aly Semigran)
No one was in on the joke here. Not the audiences who wisely skipped out on the adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's comic novel of the same name and especially not filmmaker Timur Bekmamtebov, who played this dreck up as if it were a legitimate period piece without having his actors (including the talented, Benjamin Walker, who deserves better) so much as a wink or a nod to its overtly absurd premise. Joyless, poorly executed, and, considering it came out the same year as the masterful Lincoln, downright embarrassing.
Brave (Picked By Matt Patches)
Pixar's perfect streak took a major bump after Cars 2 and the hope was Brave, the animation studio's first fairy tale, could get them back on track. No dice. Princess Merida's tale had potential, but never ran with it, taking a hard left in the middle of Merida's cry for independence to explore a wacky tale of a Bear and her daughter. With a feeling of being slapped together, Brave missed the mark. Attribute it to high expectations — the film demands the scrutiny thanks to years of near-perfect work.
Chasing Mavericks (Picked By Brian Moylan)
A good movie should have sympathetic and interesting characters who follow a narrative arc. There should be development and consistency and rousing performances and new revelations about the human condition. In the absense of all of those there should at least be enough robots, lasers, superpowers, and aliens to keep you distracted for a couple of hours. Chasing Mavericks has none of those. Based on the true story of a young man whose neighbor teaches him to surf the biggest wave in California, this Gerard Butler vehicle lurches from scene to boring scene through some tired melodrama and stock sportsporational set pieces. Aside from some top-notch surfing footage this is a complete waste of time, even more so that there could be a revelatory story somewhere in there.
The Raven (Picked By Matt Patches)
With cinematography inspired by your local diner's split pea soup, writing at which airport mystery novelists would turn up their noses, and acting from the school of crazy Nic Cage, The Raven had all the pieces to be a so-bad-its-good cult classic. Instead, the Edgar Allen Poe serial killer flick is impenetrable dreck, the only reminder of the meandering film's stakes being John Cusack's hysterical (and overly repeated) scream of the name "EMILY!" every few minutes. Emily made a smart move — she disappeared from the movie.
The Master (Picked By Christian Blauvelt)
2012 had no greater “Emperor Has No Clothes” movie moment than The Master, a shallow, sodden character study about wayward sailor Freddie Quill (Joaquin Phoenix), a guy who likes to stand akimbo, jut out his jaw, and mumble unintelligibly (Phoenix’s sole acting choices) before and after falling under the thrall of an L. Ron Hubbard-style pseudo-philosopher (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s uncritical preoccupation with power, the select few who hold power, and everyone else who covets power, seems to have devolved into adolescent banality since his genuinely frightening depiction of Tom Cruise’s modern-day pied piper in Magnolia. Which is to say that it’s hard to imagine why any Scientologist, Cruise included, would be offended by anything in The Master. Anyone have some of Freddie Quill’s paint thinner so I can drown my sorrow about this mess of a film?
Or is it the best? (Picked By Matt Patches)
Anderson became the talk of the town in 2012 when he unveiled The Master's stunning 70mm photography, a picture quality so crisp and saturated that even if the film chased its narrative tail for two hours, the visuals would be enough of a pay off. Luckily, he had something incredible to capture in the wide-frame glory. Using religion as an entry point, The Master takes us as close to someone's internal monologue as an outsider can possibly get, with Phoenix and Hoffman's range of skills on full display as they unravel the imbecile Freddie and the seductive Lancaster Dodd. When clashed together, The Master becomes a tense match of wits. Who loses in the end is ambiguous, making the secrets of the human mind the heart of the film.
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When Sean Connery puts down his cigarette lighter, takes a puff of smoke while sitting at a card table playing Chemin de Fer, then purrs the words that would immortalize him—“Bond…James Bond”—it’s like 007 emerged fully-formed, Athena-like from Ian Fleming’s brain. Since then, the most famous agent in Her Majesty’s Secret Service has starred in a further 22 big screen adventures with varying degrees of seriousness and even outright different genre trappings—blaxploitation, sci-fi space epic, Miami Vice-style revenge thriller—but for the purest expression of all things Bond, I still go back to the very first, Dr. No. It’s one of the most influential movies ever made, responsible not just for establishing the template for future James Bond movies but much of what we take for granted in modern action cinema. Everything you love about the franchise is already here: the vodka martinis, the colorful opening credits sequence, the exotic locales, the double entendre-named Bond girls. Fifty years after it landed in U.K. theaters on October 4, 1962, Dr. No is still Double-0 heaven.
The key to Dr. No’s rousing success, in the hands of workmanlike director Terence Young, is that it was patterned, in part, on Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal, modernist thriller North by Northwest—Cary Grant was even considered a likely contender to first wear Bond’s tux. But Young, screenwriter Richard Maibaum (who’d pen scripts for the franchise for decades), and producers Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, made a few crucial tweaks that turned Hitchcock’s blend of Cold War espionage and paranoia into the ultimate male fantasy. Namely, they abstracted it.
Grant’s Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest, a Madison Avenue ad man mistaken for a CIA operative targeted by agents working for a foreign power, was an ordinary guy thrown into extraordinary circumstances. He still had a mother to bicker with and a couple ex-wives to pay alimony to.
Connery’s 007 is almost a cipher by comparison. We know nothing about him except he has impeccable taste and can be pretty ruthless. The allure of James Bond lies in how truly extraordinary his life is from the start. And unlike Grant's character, Bond is ready for whatever the universe throws at him. Whereas Thornhill has his humdrum life turned upside down when carried off by currents beyond his control, Bond is always in control—whether it’s with women, playing baccarat, or tangling with Nehru-jacketed villains. Beyond all the beautiful Bond Girls, the vodka martinis, the Aston Martins, the sun-drenched getaways where Bond does so much of his “work,” I’d say that the single most appealing thing about Bond for guys everywhere, is the effortlessness with which he approaches and handles life. That’s what makes him cool. That's why guys want to be like James Bond. But if we really found ourselves dealing with international intrigue, we’d probably end up acting like Roger Thornhill—only without being anywhere near as good looking as Cary Grant.
The most intoxicating fantasies, though, are those that seem attainable. For that to happen, the flight of fancy has to be grounded in reality. Dr. No works so beautifully because it keeps Bond very much life-size. During his first big-screen outing, he relies on little more than his wits and his Walther PPK. There are no fancy fold-up helicopters, cars that turn into submarines or (shudder) become invisible. The plot is plausible too. Bond travels to sunny Jamaica to investigate strange radio signals originating in the vicinity that have been toppling NASA rockets and the disappearance of the MI6 operatives who had already been looking into the matter. Think a British Philip Marlowe with a license to kill. Along the way he tangles with a couple of shady women and finds an ally in one particularly comely shell collector before meeting the elusive, Mandarin-collared title character who’s every bit as evil as the name Dr. No suggests. Pretty straight-forward.
But the way Dr. No mixed sex and violence—and the film’s casual attitude toward both--was revolutionary in 1962. Everyone knows the famous shot of Ursula Andress’s Honey Ryder emerging from the Crab Key surf. Her bikini alone represented one of the icons of the nascent Sexual Revolution. But think also of how quickly Bond goes from pulling a gun on Sylvia Trench, putting golf balls in high-heels after breaking into his apartment, to having her fall into his arms. To be exact: it’s 50 seconds. Or how he has sex with Dr. No’s ally Miss Taro, all the while knowing that he’s going to have her arrested immediately thereafter. Or Honey Ryder’s monologue about how female praying mantises eat their male partner after “making love.”
Even the suspense scenes are dripping with a cool, erotic dread worthy of Hitchcock. Where does Dr. No’s henchman plan to kill Bond? With the British agent in bed, of course! By releasing a deadly tarantula into his Kingston hotel room that’ll creep up on him in his sleep. And, to complete the Hitchcockian mood, who plays Professor Dent? Actor Anthony Dawson, who got a pair of scissors stuck in his back as the would-be murderer of Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder. Dent’s demise in Dr. No would also set a new standard for movie violence, when Bond shoots the unarmed professor twice, including once in the back.
Aside from all its cinematic firsts, Dr. No is just damn good storytelling. For one, it sets up its villain beautifully--he’s heard, as a disembodied voice in an echo chamber, before he’s ever seen. For another, the film immerses itself deeply in the local color of its Jamaican milieu.
Around the time Quantum of Solace came out, director Marc Forster told The New York Times, “In the ’60s and ’70s…a large part of the appeal of the James Bond movies was the travel to exotic locations, but that’s not such an attraction anymore. People travel a lot more now, and with the Internet they’re more aware of what the rest of the world is like.” That right there explains a lot of the visual drabness of Quantum of Solace.
Dr. No is by no means a globe-hopping adventure, but in its one real location outside England, Jamaica, it finds a level of romance and exoticism that’s still potent. Part of that may be because Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, the man who “discovered” Bob Marley, handled location scouting for the film. It’s also because, in place of a traditional score, the movie laces funky island grooves into its aural palate. I mean, this is a movie that begins with a calypso version of “Three Blind Mice,” dripping with a whole new level of ska-derived menace: “They looking for the cat/The cat that swallowed the rat/They want to give that cat the attitude of three blind mice.” Yes, James Bond’s cinematic life began with “Three Blind Mice.” If that doesn’t make him the ultimate cool cat, I don’t know what does.
[Photo Credit: United Artists]
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Skyfall is the perfect film to accompany the 50th Anniversary of the first big screen Bond movie Dr. No. The movie is a crossroads for 007; the spy is an old soul with unconventional archaic methods struggling to exist in a high-tech world with enemies who swap laser beams and nukes for Internet viruses and data infiltration. This conflict is the core of Skyfall — perfect for director Sam Mendes (American Beauty Revolutionary Road) — and the human drama gives every moment of the espionage thriller additional weight. Sure there are the grandiose set pieces we've come to expect from the series. But like the older films Mendes keeps most of the action contained the focus always on star Daniel Craig as he evades and confronts danger. He even pushes further allowing the evildoers into MI-6's home and through the magic of performance the audience into the mind of Bond.
After a botched mission sends him off the grid James Bond returns to his homebase in London to discover the MI-6 in disarray. The target of system attacks seemingly designed to screw with M (Judi Dench) MI-6 calls upon a noticeably shaken (not stirred) Bond to get back on his feet and track down the nefarious face behind the online terrorism. While politico Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) would prefer to use the magic of computers and drones to dig up the bad guy M knows even Bond at 50% is unlike any machine in the world. A few training sessions and a weapon upgrade from Q (Ben Whishaw) later Bond hits the road.
In pure Bond fashion Skyfall traverses some beautiful landscapes. From China's glowing waterside gambling epicenter Macau to the remains of a South Pacific isle to the foggy country side of Scotland. Departing from action movie aesthetics and embracing shadows atmosphere and imperfection Bond's journey feels even more tangible than the "realistic" approach of Casino Royale. The haunting locations reflect his deeply personal mission. It helps too that Bond is faced by one of his best villains yet: Javier Bardem as the charming psychopathic Raul Silva. Silva acts as another mirror for Bond albeit a version completely off the rails. Like a mix of Hannibal Lecter and Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight Silva is determined to burn his opponents in any fashion possible. Bardem plays it all with a sinister smirk — a twist on the maniacally-laughing Bond villains of yesteryear.
Skyfall's concentration is on the dramatic but continuously delivers in the action department. Mendes finds innovative new ways to stage classic Bond moments; a one-shot fist fight in the windows of skyscraper bubbles over with intensity while another in the Chinese casino tips its hat to the campier side of the franchise. And the movie goes big with an opening sequence on par with any of Bond's past outings and a foot chase through London's Tube that tests Craig's limits as a physical performer. He never misses a beat.
Impressively Skyfall is a movie pulled from this moment in history while encompassing everything that made James Bond a long-lasting character. It's one of the best Bond entries of all time a heart-pounding action flick from start to finish (with a rousing conclusion evoking everything from Terence Young to Sam Peckinpah) and one of the best movies of the year.
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Widening the thematic scope without sacrificing too much of the claustrophobia that made the original 1979 Alien universally spooky Prometheus takes the trophy for this summer's most adult-oriented blockbuster entertainment. The movie will leave your mouth agape for its entire runtime first with its majestic exploration of an alien planet and conjectures on the origins of the human race second with its gross-out body horror that leaves no spilled gut to the imagination. Thin characters feel more like pawns in Scott's sci-fi prequel but stunning visuals shocking turns and grand questions more than make up for the shallow ensemble. "Epic" comes in many forms. Prometheus sports all of them.
Based on their discovery of a series of cave drawings all sharing a similar painted design Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green) are recruited by Weyland to head a mission to another planet one they believe holds the answers to the creation of life on Earth. Along for the journey are Vickers (Charlize Theron) the ruthless Weyland proxy Janek (Idris Elba) a blue collar captain a slew of faceless scientists and David (Michael Fassbender) HAL 9000-esque resident android who awakens the crew of spaceship Prometheus when they arrive to their destination. Immediately upon descent there's a discovery: a giant mound that's anything but natural. The crew immediately prepares to scope out the scene zipping up high-tech spacesuits jumping in futuristic humvees and heading out to the site. What they discover are the awe-inspiring creations of another race. What they bring back to the ship is what they realize may kill their own.
The first half of Prometheus could be easily mistaken for Steven Spielberg's Alien a sense of wonder glowing from every frame not too unlike Close Encounters. Scott takes full advantage of his fictional settings and imbues them with a reality that makes them even more tantalizing. He shoots the vistas of space and the alien planet like National Geographic porn and savors the interior moments on board the Prometheus full of hologram maps sleeping pods and do-it-yourself surgery modules with the same attention. Prometheus is beautiful shot in immersive 3D that never dampers Dariusz Wolski's sharp photography. Scott's direction seems less interested in the run-or-die scenario set up in the latter half of the film but the film maintains tension and mood from beginning to end. It all just gets a bit…bloodier.
Jon Spaihts' and Damon Lindelof's script doesn't do the performers any favors shuffling them to and fro between the ship and the alien construction without much room for development. Reveals are shoehorned in without much setup (one involving Theron's Vickers that's shockingly mishandled) but for the most part the ensemble is ready to chomp into the script's bigger picture conceits. Rapace is a physical performer capable of pulling off a grisly scene involving an alien some sharp objects and a painful procedure (sure to be the scene of the blockbuster season. Among the rest of the crew Fassbender's David stands out as the film's revelatory performance delivering a digestible ambiguity to his mechanical man that playfully toys with expectations from his first entrance. The creature effects in Prometheus will wow you but even Fassbender's smallest gesture can send the mind spinning. The power of his smile packs more of a punch than any facehugger.
Much like Lindelof's Lost Prometheus aims to explore the idea of asking questions and seeking answers and on Scott's scale it's a tremendous unexpected ride. A few ideas introduced to spur action fall to the way side in the logic department but with a clear mission and end point Prometheus works as a sweeping sci-fi that doesn't require choppy editing or endless explosions to keep us on the edge of our seats. Prometheus isn't too far off from the Alien xenomorphs: born from existing DNA of another creature the movie breaks out as its own beast. And it's wilder than ever.
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Title

Fiction feature directing debut, "One Night With You"; first of three films released that year

Served in Guards Armoured Division during WWII; wounded twice

Began film career at British International Pictures; worked as scenarist, assistant director, dialogue director, often on films directed by B.D. Hurst

US TV movie directing debut, "A Poppy is Also a Flower/Poppies Are Also Flowers"; anti-drug program produced by the United Nations; based on story by Ian Fleming

Co-directing debut (with Hurst), the documentary "Men of Arnhem"

Summary

Began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1930s and, following WWII service, made his fiction directorial debut with "One Night With You" (1948). Young directed a number of routine British action films before hitting his stride in the 1960s with a series of James Bond extravaganzas, beginning with "Dr. No" (1962). His recent credits include "Inchon" (1982), one of the biggest commercial disasters in the history of cinema.